Of Nature And Some Of Her Ways Poem by Francis Duggan

Of Nature and some of her ways i first got to know
Far north in the fields where the Cails waters flow
To join with Finnow and the Blackwater meet
By the bridge at Drishane near the Town of Millstreet

Old memories remain as a source of joy
Of the voice of the corncrake where i lived as a boy
But the earlier cutting of the grass their nests and eggs destroyed
And in the fields of my young years their distinct voices died

Always for human progress Nature has to pay
This is how it is and suppose will always be this way
Due to earlier grass cutting for silage and hay
No corncrakes are heard in Summer in Duhallow today

The more i learn of Nature's ways the more i realize
That i know little of her this not a surprise
And not all of the knowledge we acquire in memory we retain
Yet we do learn as we live as a truism remain

Nowadays in the fields of Duhallow in the Spring and Summer of the year
The voices of the corncrakes a young boy will not hear
Their distinctive and rasping calls to Duhallow forever lost
Human progress to Nature always comes at a cost.